Become a Leader
Become a Leader.
3 Life Lessons That Helped Me Become a Better Leader.
How to improve your own chances to be successful.
I like to think that I was born to be a leader, but looking
back on my past, I’m afraid that’s just not the case. There was a time when I
was unable to step up to the plate. It took a couple of kicks in the pants, but
through it, I learned valuable lessons that have continued to help me become a
better leader and a more successful person.
It may have taken a while for me to accept the fact that I
was not in complete control of my life, but once I grasped that, I saw that I
actually had more control over it than I had first believed. I knew this: I was
a capable leader who had experienced a lot of ups and downs, and I was eager to
share my ideas and to help other people rise up, too.
I want to stress this: It is important that you teach
yourself how to see the events in your life as lessons, not simply as blessings
or curses. Everything—every success, every failure—has its purpose whether you
can see it immediately or not. Some of the best lessons I’ve ever learned came
long after an event took place, and had I not been willing and able to
recognize them, I might not know my success today as co-founder of Wild
Creations.
Here are three of the most priceless:
1. Everyone makes mistakes.
I used to be afraid of my inability to be perfect. But I
became more comfortable in my own skin knowing mistakes are normal—necessary.
This realization, that I didn’t have to be flawless, made it a lot easier for
me to step up into a leadership role. I was also able to value those who served
under me, seeing their mistakes as mirrors of my own.
My perspective flipped. Instead of instantly feeling
defeated and shutting down, I repeatedly restructured my approach until I got
it right. Eventually I was able to channel my respect for imperfection into a
self-perpetuating system of groundbreaking trial, acceptable error and
noticeable optimization.
2. To keep a level head is a virtue.
There were plenty of times when I was more than ready to
throw in the towel. After all, being a leader is a big responsibility and
setbacks can be extremely frustrating—and, at first, I wasn’t able to accept
defeat. I got frustrated instead, losing my cool at the first sign of failure.
But, after a few spills, I learned to keep in mind that
there really is a solution to everything and that every event, good or bad, has
a beneficial lesson attached. So, knowing these things, I was able to re-collect
my thoughts, find the underlying issues causing the problems and nip them in
the bud. Eventually my irritation and angst subsided, and I gained more
confidence in my leadership capabilities with every solved problem.
3. Time and humility are co-founders of success.
As much as I wanted it to, my success did not happen
overnight. It took hard work, patience, determination and vision—and it took a
long time. I was a follower for longer than I was a leader, but I used that
time wisely to gobble up as many lessons as I could.
And I know now that being a leader sometimes means taking
the backseat. In fact, some of my best discoveries have been made by allowing
someone else to take the reins.
I can now say, with confidence, that leadership is my
calling. I know how to read people because I have been through hard times
myself. I am able to stay calm in a crisis because I have learned how to sort
out the details and fix the problem from the ground up. Moreover, I have
humbled myself to the fact that I cannot make miracles happen instantly, and
that I will have more success as a leader if I never act like a horrible boss.
Why am I sharing these life lessons with you? Because that’s
what a good leader does.
